I wrote this back in Februray of 2023. It is a deep one

This one happened at work.

You see, as a young researcher, who grew up on the streets of Agboyi-Ketu, I am always ready and eager to make my mark in the science and technology realm.

You know, maybe pick one Nobel prize along the way. So stay with me.

‍

‍

One morning, my manager emailed my department about a research opportunity. He needed only two electric power system engineers.

This unique opportunity was to collaborate on a project with a start-up company that had this craaaazy idea: transmitting electric energy from a source, like a generator, to a user, like your house, without using wires. Basically, transmitting and receiving electricity using an antenna — electromagnetic signals.

I didn’t even finish reading the email before my mind started running.

“This is it, Sam. This kind work fit make me blow.”

I started dreaming. Nobel Prize is all but assured.

‍

As a sharp guy, I immediately responded to my manager’s email. Something like:

“Oga, abeg o, I am interested in this collaboration.” But of course, in a very professional manner.

The problem was that most of my colleagues were also interested. So my manager had to down-select the list to just two people.

Wahala.

He said he would look at our backgrounds and body of work to decide who would be selected. I was like...."mess up". Since I came to the United States, I had not done any research in electromagnetics or antenna propagation.

My Nobel Prize dream came crashing down like cryptocurrency.

But ladies and gentlemen, it is only when you are down that you can be lifted up. Help came from where I least expected it.

You will not believe what or who stood up for me.

It was the UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS!!!!.

‍

Unilag to the rescue.

I know you are wondering how. Relax. Good things can still come out of Nigeria. 🇳🇬

Let’s do a brief flashback.

For those who do not know, I earned my bachelor’s degree from the University of Lagos. Great Akokite! For my final undergraduate project in 2012/2013, I worked with a lecturer who insisted that I work on a topic titled:

“Method of Moment Analysis of a Thin Wire Antenna.”

My Undergraduate project is a story for another day

This lecturer gave me a 1977 typewriter-typed paper that had incomplete computer code for calculating the flow of electric current in an antenna. The code was written in FORTRAN IV and had almost a thousand lines. In case you are wondering, FORTRAN IV is an ancient programming language used with 1960s computers.

He told me my project was to run the FORTRAN code successfully and then convert it to a MATLAB script.

Now, at that stage of my life, it is important to note the following:

1. I knew absolutely nothing about antennas or how they worked. All I knew was that radios and TVs had antennas.
2. I had never seen or used FORTRAN in my life.
3. I didn’t know anyone who had used FORTRAN before, except my dad who mentioned he had used it a million years ago when he was an undergrad.
4. The lecturer himself did not know how to use FORTRAN.
5. He gave me this project one month before my project defense.

Where do I start bayi?

There was clearly not enough time to learn FORTRAN, understand the code, complete it, and convert it to MATLAB. Failure was written all over the project. I could smell extra year coming already. I cried to God and man. Like I said, my undergraduate project is a story for another day.

But while this lecturer clearly wanted me to fail, my God was doing His thing. He bought me some time. Yes, you guessed it. The Academic Staff Union of Universitties !!!. ASUU went on a six-month strike. 😂

This flashback is getting too long jare. Long story short: I completed the project, passed, and graduated.

After graduating, I uploaded the project online.

Now back to our original timeline.

My manager saw this undergraduate project online and called me to say.. "Sam, I see you have done some work on Antenna Propagation". Me wey I don forget. I said "I think you are mistaken, most of my work has been on power system dynamics and control". He then said he saw my work online from the University of Lagos. That is when it clicked in my head. Quickly I said "Oh Yes, I have done some work in that area when I was an undergraduate". I said one or two things about what I did. That was how I was selected for this new opportunity. The dream was back ON. I can still blow.

‍

I was introduced to the team, and we scheduled regular meetings. The team met online every weekday from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Normally, I am still sleeping at 8 a.m. If you like, judge me. I am not a morning person. And for those who know me, alarms are useless when I am asleep.

So this blessed morning, I woke up around 8:05 a.m. I was already late for the daily meeting. I jumped out of bed, ran straight to my computer, switched it on, logged in, and clicked the meeting link.

Now, as a true Yoruba man, I don’t sleep with pajamas. That is the foreigner’s way of life. For me, I do “skin-to-bed.” 😉 This meeting was usually an audio meeting. Everyone normally kept their cameras off.

Ladies and gentlemen, cry with me because you can already see where this is going.

On a normal day, when you join a Microsoft Teams meeting, you have the option to turn your video and audio on or off before clicking “Join Meeting.” But on this fateful day, I was late, in a hurry, and bare-chested. And I forgot to turn off my video.

So I joined the meeting, and there I was — bare-chested in front of the whole team. Imagine coming late to a meeting and then entering naked.

Please let me take a break and cry again.

If you are laughing at me right now, may you experience this also.

One guy at the meeting said..."Sam, I think you have your video on". I immediately turned off my video, muted myself and kept quiet. I didn't say a single word till the meeting ended. I have never been more embarrassed in my life. My dreams may be crashing again. I was expecting my manager to call me, since everything unfolded in his presence. He never called, no one said anything either. Everyone behaved as if nothing happened there after.

After weeks of preliminary research and meetings, we finally traveled to Texas to meet physically with the collaborating company and carry out experiments on transmitting electricity wirelessly. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you the outcome of the experiment because I signed an NDA, and I want to keep my job. 😂

But the story ends with the biggest coincidence I have ever witnessed in my life.

One evening during the project, we had dinner with the team from my office and the team from the collaborating company. Luckily, I was seated beside the co-founder of the company and also beside my manager. My manager introduced me to the co-founder and said things like:

“Sam is one of our smartest guys. He has done some research on Method of Moment Analysis…” If you see the way I was blushing. My head was swelling. Then the co-founder turned to me and asked:

“Tell me more about your project on Method of Moments analysis.”

As a sharp guy, I was ready. I started talking. I told him about my undergraduate days at the University of Lagos. I hyped Unilag wella. I explained that the project was just my undergraduate research work and mentioned the 1977 typewriter-typed paper that had FORTRAN IV code.

Ladies and gentlemen, to my surprise, the co-founder sitting beside me was the author of that paper. He was the one who wrote the original FORTRAN code for the Method of Moment Analysis.

When he told me who he was, I was flabbergasted. He said he wrote that paper when he was finishing his master’s at Syracuse University.

What are the odds?

The genesis of a project forced down my throat — a project that almost killed my career back in Unilag — was written by this man now sitting beside me years later.

This remains the biggest and craziest coincidence I have ever experienced.

Of Course, I took a selfie with him

If it is meant to be, it will be.

The End.

‍